While attending the Women in Agriculture Conference in Edmond, Oklahoma, Stevie White spoke to Langston University Honey Bee Extension Officer Hank Baker to talk about the interesting and useful insects.
To get established as a beekeeper, Baker recommends taking a class first with one of the many beekeeping organizations in Oklahoma, such as the Central Oklahoma Beekeepers Association, the Northeast Oklahoma Beekeepers Association, or the Oklahoma Beekeepers Association. “They all offer classes,” he said. “You can also reach out to someone like me who offers mentorships.”
In addition to honey, a hive of bees can also provide other marketing opportunities such as beeswax, pollen – which is a strong, healthy protein commonly added to salads and yogurt, and once a hive becomes established and healthy, it will procreate a large number of bees providing bees, themselves, as a marketable product.
Interestingly, honey bees are classified as livestock. “When they are classified as livestock, it means that they are not wild animals, so the beekeeper has a responsibility to care for and manage them properly. You have to make sure that they have food, resources, and diseases are properly cared for as well,” Baker shared.
For crop producers, adding honey bees makes the most sense. “When hone bees are located next to your crop, you are going to get a lot more pollination to create a lot more produce,” Baker said. “Bees have a small footprint and require a very low amount of work to provide for them, but you get a lot of benefits from the bees being on your property; not only for your crops but also for the natural environment around your location. Their role also makes our food less expensive.”
While there are a lot of other natural pollinators in the environment, honey bees get the most attention because they are the only ones that can be managed by humans. “We can move them in large quantities next to fields where they are needed,” Baker said. “We can move them from the south to the north to be constantly pollinating our crops. Probably the largest movement of honey bees to pollinate products would be on the almonds of California.”
